Will Link SPAM Unravel in 2010?
I was reading a well known forum this week. In the SEO section there’s thread after thread promoting and asking about link spamming techniques. There’s everything from software that automatically creates profiles on forums to offers of a 1000 PR5 links for thirty bob and a fried fish.
There are also a shed load of people who have created crap websites in the hope of generating an income from Google Adsense or from affiliate marketing. It’s all about creating crap nobody needs to generate income by doing nothing.
Google have started banning affiliate marketers from their AdWords programs and I wonder if this is the beginning of Google realising their index is in danger of disappearing up its own arse in a puff of blue smoke. Just in case Google needs a hand with this here’s my list of things Google can do right now to clean up their index….
- Discount all links from forums
They are 99% self promotion and spam. Sure you will kill some links that merit being counted but for the most part you won’t. Bin ‘em. - Discount all links from blogs comments
Again, 99% of blog comment links are self promotion. Most people comment in blogs to generate links. There are some great blog comments out there but it’s for the greater good to simply bin them all. - Discount links from Article Sites
I’ve used article marketing to good effect but the links are not based on merit so although it will hurt me I’m happy to do what’s right for the greater good. In the bin with them. - Discount social book marking
This is a classic example of yet another great idea being abused out of all usefulness. Sorry but in the bin they must go. - Discount link farms
If we, the great unwashed, can find these sites surely you can, so do so and bin them.
So what does that leave? Well heaven forfend we’ll have to revert back to creating something that’s so useful other site owners will want to link to it!
But seriously……. none of the above will happen even though it’s so out of hand that Google’s index is becoming increasingly irrelevant. People are going to become more reliant on old fashioned networking and referrals when looking for products and services, albeit facilitated by 21st century tools (Twitter, Facebook etc). Who knows, maybe Google with it’s new smart phone will move more and more into other areas too as it’s flagship product becomes mired in spam.
TTFN
d
In the interests of promoting the ethos outlined in your article I’m commenting largely anonymously.
I’ve seen loads of crap link-building projects work time and time again and it makes me cringe to see the work that is being passed off as SEO and although I am hugely reluctant to do so, will there come a point when I jump right in and join them? What am I supposed to say to clients who are being outdone by comment spammers, article marketers and directory submitters?
Wil I stop allowing comments on my company blog to stop the [Web Design Mumbai] crowd from pestering me with their pitchy “Great post!” “Congratulations on fine web site and nice advice” plugs?
I’ll confess that out of morbid curiosity I’ve recently set up a test site on an exact match domain and am trying out all these daft techniques to see just how effective they are. I rather suspect they’ll work well and I’ll end up crying into my morning cup of coffee.
That said, the thought of littering the web with useless comments and duff links makes me cringe and makes me feel sorry for the future generations who will have to find their way through the quagmire, not to mention pay for all the spinning discs storing all those precious bytes of spam!